Help support independent media!

Apple Issues Court Order to Vacate, Citing 1st & 5th Amendments

Apple fought back against the FBI again today, filing a court order to vacate, and citing the 1st and 5th Amendments to defend its refusal to build a back door to the iPhone.

Some highlights from the introduction from the document (complete version embedded below)

For example, under the same legal theories advocated by the government here, the government could argue that it should be permitted to force citizens to do all manner of things “necessary” to assist it in enforcing the laws,

like compelling a pharmaceutical company against its will to produce drugs needed to carry out a lethal injection in furtherance of a lawfully issued death warrant,

or requiring a journalist to plant a false story in order to help lure out a fugitive,

or forcing a software company to insert malicious code in its auto- update process that makes it easier for the government to conduct court-ordered surveillance.

This is not a case about one isolated iPhone. No court has ever authorized what the government now seeks, no law supports such unlimited and sweeping use of the judicial process, and the Constitution forbids it.